Jaat makers rope in four action directors to make film Sunny Deol's biggest action drama

Sunny Deol in Jaat; (right) Gopichand Malineni

When Telugu director Gopichand Malineni had announced his next with Sunny Deol, he had promised that it would be an action extravaganza (Deol rises again as a one-man army, June 24). Seven months and four schedules later, it looks like he has stayed true to his word. In his bid to make Jaat one of Deol's biggest action films, the director has roped in four stunt directors, each of whom has designed an elaborate action block.

Sources tell us that Anal Arasu, Ram-Lakshman, Naga Venkat Naga, and Peter Hein of Kalki 2898 AD (2024) fame lead the action team. A source says, "The sets have been designed by Avinash Kolla. The first set-piece involved a car chase sequence choreographed by Peter Hein. Another action block involves hand-to-hand combat that takes place inside a police station and ends with Sunny using a huge fan as a weapon. It was choreographed by Naga Venkat. Both the set-pieces were shot in Hyderabad last year. Another fight sequence aboard a ship was designed by Ram-Lakshman, and filmed at the Panambur port in Mangalore last month. Sunny also shot an ambitious action piece set in Agumbe forest in Mangalore last November. It will be one of the major highlights of the film."

Jaat, also starring Saiyami Kher and Regina Cassandra, is almost complete, save for one week's shoot. Next week, Deol will kick off the last leg of the film in Mangalore. The source adds, "Only a few days' work remains on Jaat. The major action blocks are complete." If Deol's protagonist who rises against the corrupt
system is being shown as a mighty hero, the antagonists need to be powerful too. Keeping that in mind, Malineni has apparently roped in six actors as villains. "Sunny will face five villains, played by Randeep Hooda, Vineet Kumar Singh, Ajay Ghosh, Dayanand Shetty, Jagpathi Babu and Babloo Prithiveeraj. The director wants to make it bigger than Gadar 2: The Katha Continues [2023] in terms of action," says the insider. Jaat will be released in Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil.